There are approximately 60,000 men, women, and children staying in New York City shelters. Of these, 25,000 are children, and close to a third have mental illness. This does not count the homeless who are sleeping on trains, on benches, in parks, in abandoned buildings, or with friends or family. This is the highest number of homeless individuals since the Great Depression.
Shelter in the City is a 90-minute documentary on homelessness in New York City produced at the initiative of the Catholic Church of Brooklyn. A variety of individuals and organizations have been interviewed to try to get a better understanding of the causes of homelessness and, hopefully, to try to find a solution.
“The heart of Shelter in the City involves a father trying to save his mentally ill son who has been living on the streets for more than a year,” said Terence Donnellan, the documentary’s director and producer. “Although their lives were full of heartbreak and desperation, they wanted to share their experience so that others might not have to live through the same despair. It is my privilege to tell the story of Ken Murray Sr. and Ken Murray Jr. in the hope that we may find a way to end this horrible affliction”.
Shelter in the City has been accepted to the 2016 Vail Film Festival in the documentaries category.
